The severity of Mr Mugabe's comments appeared to take
Downing Streetby surprise, and many commentators will view the speech as an
embarrassmentfor Mr Blair.

By the time Mr Mugabe spoke, Mr
Blair had already left the SandtonConvention Centre, where he addressed more
than 100 world leaders in hisallotted time of five minutes.

Mr
Blair urged rich nations to open their markets to the developingworld,
especially for agricultural products.

At the same time, the prime
Minister repeated his pledge that Britainwould increase its development aid
to Africa to £1 billion a year.

"This is not charity. It is an
investment in Britain's, Europe's andAfrica's collective future," he
said.

The EU last night lost its push for the summit's final
document toinclude fixed targets for the use of renewable wind and solar
energy. Itmarked a victory for the US, Japan and oil exporters. "Humanity
hasrendezvous with destiny," the French president, Jacques Chirac,
declared."Alarms are sounding across all the continents. We cannot say that
we didnot know!"

Mr Blair said Britain was proud that it would
meet and exceed itstargets for implementing the Kyoto protocol on greenhouse
gases.

While the issues facing the summit and the world were
difficult todeal with, the consequences of inaction were not unknown.
"Poverty andenvironmental degradation, if unchecked, could spell catastrophe
for ourworld."

"People must always come first in
any process of sustainabledevelopment . Let our Africans come first in the
development of Africa, notas puppets, not as beggars, but as a sovereign
people," he said.

Mr Mugabe also accused international
organisations like theInternational Monetary Fund (IMF) of promoting the
interests of the rich.

"Over the years, those outdated institutions
have been unilaterallytransformed to dominate the world for the strategic
national goals of therich north," he said.

"That is why, for
example, the IMF has never been a fund for the poorpeasants," he said. "Even
the United Nations, that is supposed to give usequal voices, remains
unreformed."

He said Harare was working to defend the environment:
"We keep ourforests, we keep our animals, we keep even our reptiles plus
insects. Welook after elephants and ivory, we look after our
lions."

This was dissembling on a huge scale. In fact, more than
two-thirds ofZimbabwe's once glorious wildlife has been killed in the past
six months bythe army, farm squatters and Mr Mugabe's own ruthless Youth
Militia.

And there you have it in
a nutshell: "My Zimbabwe". These are thewords of a dictator - the Zimbabwe
elections were rigged and Mugabe's regimeis under Commonwealth interdict
because of it. They reveal the megalomanicvision of an ageing potentate who
is clinging to power regardless of thesuffering he causes his
country.

As what was once the breadbasket of southern Africa
descends intofamine and chaos, Mugabe has taken to diverting attention from
histragi-comic rule by stirring up ancient memories of British
colonialism.Some of the African leaders present yesterday were tempted to
agree withhim. It is a dangerous diversion. The rights and wrongs of
colonialism arefor the history books. What matters today is that Africa ends
its endemiccivil wars, institutes the rule of law, outlaws corruption, and
concentrateson economic reconstruction.

Equally, the Western
nations need to reduce agricultural and tradeprotection to give African
economies a chance to enter world markets. Africalacks capital, and that
should come from the West, but it can't be deliveredtill property rights are
secure and local African businesses can operatewithout being plundered by
their own governments. In achieving all this,Mugabe is the problem, not the
solution.

The ex-colonial powers are still bound to Africa, as Mr
Blair madeplain in his own speech to the Earth Summit. But the relationship
now has tobe one of partnership, not enmity or supplication on either part.
Mr Mugabedoes not want such a partnership. It is in his interests to
rekindle oldfires as a cover for his own political failings. Africa must not
let hisbrand of hatred triumph.

JOHANNESBURG, Sept 2:
Zimbabwe shot to the fore at the Earth Summit inJohannesburg on Monday with
Namibia and New Zealand laying bare the rawdivisions stirred by President
Robert Mugabe.

Harking back to colonial exploitation of the African
continent, NamibianPresident Sam Nujoma singled out British Prime Minister
Tony Blair as beingat the root of one of the region's biggest
problems.

"We here in southern Africa have one big problem, created by
the British.The honourable Tony Blair is here, and he created the situation
inZimbabwe," Nujoma said in his address to the World Summit on
SustainableDevelopment.

"The EU, who have imposed the sanctions
against Zimbabwe, must raise themimmediately, otherwise it is useless to
come here," he told a crowded hallwith 78-year-old Mugabe in the audience.
The EU slapped sanctions onPresident Robert Mugabe's government after
presidential elections in March,which the EU deemed illegitimate, and the
seizure of white-owned farms.

One of Mugabe's sternest critics, New
Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark,blamed his policies for exacerbating a
food crisis.

"In one case this disaster has been made much worse by
deliberate andcynical government policies," Clark said in her speech without
naming Mugabewho was due to address the summit later on
Monday.

Blair, who took the floor about 10 minutes after Nujoma's
finger-jabbingtirade, did not respond to the accusations.

"(Blair's)
focus is exclusively on the outcome of the summit," a spokesmansaid, adding
that the Namibian president's words were not a surprise. "Hehas been saying
it for years."

"I think the whole international community should adopt such a
firm stance,"he said. "Personally, I don't see any need for further
steps...Everybody isaware of our strong criticism of President
Mugabe."

Mugabe has vowed to press ahead with the eviction of 2,900 of
the country's4,500 remaining white commercial farmers despite legal
challenges at homeand criticism in the West.

About 1,500 people,
mainly black South Africans, gathered on Monday for ananti-Mugabe march
outside the conference centre.

Jenni Williams, spokeswoman for the
Zimbabwe white farmers' pressure groupJustice for Agriculture, said Mugabe
was redistributing land to his croniesand allies.

"We hunger for
food, yet Mugabe is taking away the land that has fed us. Wehunger for peace
and yet Mugabe has now formed a war cabinet to fight hisown people,"
Williams said.

Nujoma said white farms represented most of the land in
Zimbabwe whilemillions of poor Zimbabweans were landless.

"The
British colonial settlers in Zimbabwe today, they own 78 percent of theland
in Zimbabwe, and Zimbabwe is a tiny country," he said. "It has 14million
indigenous (people) who have no land."

He said Africans who were shipped
as slaves to the Americas were stillsuffering in the modern age.

"The
Africans who were taken there are being discriminated (against) inAmerica
and South America ... They are the underdogs, they are the poorestof the
world.

"We the African people have suffered more than any other nation in
theworld," Nujoma said.

Children's advice: Children urged the Earth
Summit to "take action" toensure sustainable development of the planet and
give future generations achance of happiness.

The message was
delivered by Analiz Vergara, 14, from Ecuador, Canada'sJustin Friesen and
Liao Mingyu from China, both 11, who were given the stageshortly before the
summit began.

"Most world leaders do not listen. We are disappointed
because too manyadults are more interested in money than in the
environment," they said,reporting back from an international conference on
children and theenvironment in Canada three months ago.

The three
children said that though they were "still only babies" in 1992when the
first Earth Summit was held in Rio de Janeiro, they knew that inthe past 10
years children had continued to suffer as a result of the damageto the
environment.-Reuter/AFP
Telegraph

Zimbabwe's President
Robert Mugabe and his closest ally have launched ahighly personal attack on
the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair,effectively hijacking the earth
summit to blame Britain for Zimbabwe'scrisis.

His outburst - and an attack by his friend, Sam
Nujoma, the Namibianpresident - upstaged Mr Blair's speech during a flying
visit to the summitand his attempt to highlight Britain's commitment to
environmental targets.

Mr Mugabe had taken his seat at the Johannesburg
conference to hear openingremarks by the United Nations Secretary-General,
Kofi Annan. Within an hourhe had slouched in his chair with his eyes closed
and appeared to be asleep.But he was galvanised into action when Mr Blair
walked in.

He jumped to his feet and stalked out, reappearing only as Mr
Blair wound uphis six-minute speech. After the walk-out, the Namibian leader
took up thecudgels. The Prime Minister sat stony-faced.

Diplomats had
moved Mr Blair's speaking slot from the afternoon because itwas close to
that of Mr Mugabe, but they failed to anticipate Mr
Nujoma'sattack.

"Here in southern Africa we have one problem and it
was created by theBritish," Mr Nujoma said. "The Honourable Tony Blair is
here and theycreated the situation in Zimbabwe."

Mr Blair was not in
the chamber when Mr Mugabe departed from his preparedtext on sustainable
development to make his most inflammatory remarks.

"Sustainable
development is not possible without agrarian reforms thatacknowledge that
land comes first before all else and that all else growsfrom the land," he
said. "In our situation, this fundamental has pitted theblack majority
against an obdurate and internationally well-connected racialminority,
largely of British descent, brought in and sustained by British colonialism,
now being supported and manipulated by the Blair Government."

Mr Mugabe's
remarks on Zimbabwe sovereignty generated most applause.

"We do not mind
having and bearing sanctions banning us from Europe. We arenot Europeans. We
have not asked for any square inch of that territory," hesaid. "So, Blair,
keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe."

Mr Mugabe's words divided
the summit between the developing and thedeveloped worlds. But the generally
positive reaction to the outburstsunderlined how the indignation felt by
Britain, Europe and America at MrMugabe's land-grab policy is not shared by
many in Africa.

THROUGHOUT
three chaotic and traumatic years, it has become apparent noZimbabwean has
"invaded" a farm, caused violence to another, or threatened aworking
business except as an agent, directly or indirectly, of thePresident Robert
Mugabe's ruling party, Zanu (PF), and its abuse of statepower and
resources.

The significant shift from the Organisation of African Unity
(OAU), whichrespected every African dictator's right to do what he liked
internally, tothe African Union (AU) that "promotes democratic principles
andinstitutions" and sets out to "protect human and peoples' rights" and
whichincludes peer review should have triggered approaches of the citizen
rightstype. All the evidence of human rights abuse piling up inside human
rightsagencies in Zimbabwe, and thus vulnerable to fire bombs by state
agents,must be copied and stored safely in SA.

With SA and
international backing, it can become the material input for aninternational
tribunal housed in Pretoria to begin as soon as possible toassemble cases
against the Zimbabwean regime.

The key message to be broadcast now inside
Zimbabwe is that any futuregovernment, with global and African backing, will
not accept the anarchictheft of farms and the resultant destruction of
commercial farming, and withit most formal employment, and scattering of
farm labour.

The "land issue" must be the privilege of Zimbabweans and
their newdemocratically elected government to sort out with, together
withinternational assistance. Now, however late, and with Mugabe parading
hisdelusions at the World Summit on Sustainable Development,
internationalrepresentatives must begin to act on the reconstruction of
Zimbabwe.

The relief and recovery plan of the United Nations (UN) was
prepared lastAugust and September. It is built on the creation of economic
rights, notjust emergency humanitarian handouts, for all
Zimbabweans.

Relief may now appear to be the most urgent need in
Zimbabwe. How it isdone, by manipulable handouts, negotiating every day with
an illegal ruler,or by way of creating citizens' economic rights to underpin
their democraticrights and lay the basis for economic recovery, is still a
choice.

Zimbabwe is the first and immediate test case of the promise
ofimplementable accords at the summit. The relief and recovery plan urged
theUN and all governments to announce a number of measures that
wouldstrengthen citizens, open up democratic practice locally, and
demonstrateinternational support for the people of Zimbabwe.

These
programmes, interacting together, would forge a set of commoninterests
across the party divide and reward community and group action,forcing a new
"people-centred" politics on the government.

The measures would be
welcomed by at least the 80% who oppose Mugabe; theywould also serve to
define the conditions under which the internationalcommunity, and Africa,
would assist Zimbabwe.

In this way, the plan presages the shift from the
OAU to the interventionistAU. The plan has been built on a fund provided by
the internationalcommunity (800m for this year) that would provide for
reconstruction fromthe start. Relief would follow from an unfolding of
economic rights.

Mugabe has now stopped official food imports, leaving
his citizens to thecare of the global community. That abdication must be
seized upon.

Under the recovery programme, citizens would be able to
juxtapose theeconomic rights the international community provided against
the balderdashof Mugabe's ranting against foreign and bogus
enemies.

Zimbabwe, with Mugabe in town, provides both the summit and AU
with thechance for historic actionable success.

Reynolds, a former
Zimbabwean government chief economist, is director ofEarth Africa.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A defiant Zimbabwean President RobertMugabe on
Monday blamed Britain and other rich countries for the poverty anddespair in
his country.

Mugabe, speaking at the World Summit, also defended
his seizure ofwhite farms, saying the program pitted the majority against an
"obdurate"racial minority "supported and manipulated" by British Prime
Minister TonyBlair.

"We have not asked for any inch of Europe,"
said Mugabe. "So, Blair,keep your England and let me keep my
Zimbabwe."

But some here said Mugabe's Zimbabwe offered delegates a
troublingglimpse of the future and the human cost of failure to confront the
hugeglobal problems faced by the summit.

More than half of
Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people face imminentstarvation. Its once vibrant
economy teeters on the brink of collapse. Morethan 70 percent of its people
live in poverty. Most are unemployed. Theylack proper housing, basic health
care, clean water, sanitation, electricityand quality education for their
children.

In just five years, Zimbabwe has fallen from a relatively
prosperousand stable country to one wracked by economic despair
andgovernment-sponsored political violence.

Zimbabwe government
statistics indicate the economy has shrunk by 28percent and per capita
income has been cut almost in half to $380 a year.

Inflation last
month reached an annual rate of 123 percent.

Despite a looming
famine in southern Africa, Mugabe has continued withthe seizure of 95
percent of the white-owned farmland, bringing to astandstill an industry
that once helped feed southern Africa.
MSNBC

Zimbabwe problems unchanged by fiery Mugabe
speech

JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 3 - Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is not
only one of theworld's longer serving presidents, after 22 years in power
and nearly six togo. He is also one of the most highly educated.
Those assets were on display when he addressed the Earth Summit
inJohannesburg with a blend of passion and oratory that was a contrast
withthe monotone efforts of his peers. ''We wish no harm to
anyone, we are Zimbabweans, we are Africans, weare not English, we are not
Europeans. We love Africa, we love Zimbabwe, welove our independence,'' he
said. There was applause in the hall, from more than a few heads of
stateas well as journalists and observers, after the 78-year-old former
guerrillaslammed Britain, the European Union, the International Monetary
Fund (IMF)and the United Nations, official host of the 200-nation
summit. A day later, Mugabe's political opponents were still baffled
by theenthusiastic reaction. ''It just hit me that people were
clapping. It shocked me, after theinfantile demeanour that he presented in
his speech,'' said Tendai Biti,foreign affairs spokesman for the Movement
for Democratic Change (MDC), onTuesday. ''Yes, a few of those
leaders clapped but not one of them would everconsider copying his
policies,'' Biti said during a brief stay inJohannesburg. He came to the
summit to try to put the case against Mugabe,five months after presidential
elections that were condemned as rigged byobservers from southern African
parliaments and the Commonwealth. As the butt of most of Mugabe's
invective, British Prime MinisterTony Blair did not mince his words on
Tuesday. ''...this rubbish about neo-colonialism, that is just a
cloak, acover, for what is a corrupt and ruinous regime,'' Blair said on his
returnhome from the summit. For a senior African diplomat involved
in moves to mediate inZimbabwe, Mugabe's fiery speech was a
disappointment. ''It looks like nothing has changed. One had hoped
there might besome reconciliation but this shows the administration in
Harare is diggingin, hardening its positions,'' he said.

CASTRO,
CHAVEZ, MUGABE In the absence of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, Mugabe was
probably themost senior left-wing president in town, closely followed by
Venezuela'sHugo Chavez. Invoking nationalist and socialist
principles, Mugabe has refused toconsider a devaluation of Zimbabwe's
dollar, even though it trades on theblack market at one-twelfth of its
official rate of 55 to the U.S. dollar. The distortion is so huge that
analysts reckon 80 percent of basicfoods are now bought and sold at the
black market rate. Inflation isexpected to reach 150 percent by
December. Southern Africa's former breadbasket is empty, and the
governmentsays six million of its 14 million people are facing
famine. An estimated two million Zimbabweans are economic refugees in
SouthAfrica and other neighbouring states. Many of the young waiters
andwaitresses serving summit delegates at restaurants in the plush
Sandtonsuburb were Zimbabwean illegal aliens. For the European
Union and the United States, both of which haveclamped personal sanctions on
Mugabe and his innner circle, Zimbabwe is incrisis because its policies are
disastrous. But for Mugabe and his ruling ZANU-PF, Zimbabwe is a
battlefieldbetween good and evil, the poor and the rich, the black and the
white. They say their country is paying the price for daring to take
on thewhite world through a sweeping programme of land redistribution.
Mugabe hasvowed to press ahead with the eviction of 2,900 of Zimbabwe's
4,500 whitecommercial farmers, a majority of whom are of British
extraction. Nowhere does the land issue touch raw nerves more
painfully than inAfrica, which was carved up by European
colonisers. A Ugandan delegate at the summit, Ndawula Kaweesi, agreed
thatMugabe's speech on Monday lacked diplomacy. But he added:
''African countries really are supporting him, he is trying toidentify the
grassroots problems. Unlike in Europe, politicians in Africadeal with
grassroots because the problems we have are very basic.''

ZIMBABWE OFFERS
MBEKI ADVICE Mugabe and his main ally, 73-year-old President Sam
Nujoma ofNamibia, chose the sensitive venue of South Africa to make their
highlypublicised attacks on Europe. At home, South African
President Thabo Mbeki is often decried by hiswhite minority for being soft
on Mugabe and for perversely portraying theMarch elections as
legitimate. Yet a vocal black minority in South Africa accuses Mbeki
of sellingout to rich whites and failing to push through a radical land
programme ofhis own. Zimbabwe's justice minister, Patrick
Chinamasa, stirred things up onSouth Africa's leading radio phone-in on
Tuesday. ''My advice to South Africa is start now (on land reform).
Don't waituntil the pressures are too overwhelming,'' he said.
''If you think that in South Africa you will be freed from what ishappening
in Zimbabwe and you don't anticipate those changes, I feel sorryfor you
because as things are South African blacks are in a worse situationthan
Zimbabweans,'' Chinamasa added. The speeches by Mugabe and Nujoma were
diametrically at odds withwhat Mbeki has been selling to the West -- a
vision of an investor-friendlycontinent ready to do business in the New
Partnership for Africa'sDevelopment (NEPAD). ''The two old guys
enjoyed snubbing their noses at Mbeki. But asMbeki says, the entire
population of Namibia is less than half the size ofSoweto, so why worry?''
one South African analyst said.

His outburst - and an attack by his friend, Sam Nujoma,
the Namibianpresident - dramatically upstaged Mr Blair's speech during a
flying visit tothe summit and his attempt to highlight Britain's commitment
toenvironmental targets.

Mr Mugabe had taken his seat at the
Johannesburg conference to hear openingremarks by Kofi Annan, the United
Nations secretary-general.

Within an hour he had slouched in his chair
with his eyes closed andappeared to be asleep. But he was galvanised into
action when Mr Blairwalked in.

He jumped to his feet and stalked out,
leaving the Zimbabwe desk unmanned,reappearing only as Mr Blair wound up his
six-minute speech.

After the walk-out, the Namibian leader took up the
cudgels. The PrimeMinister sat stony-faced listening to Mr Nujoma's remarks,
which appeared tohave wrong-footed the British delegation.

Diplomats
had moved Mr Blair's speaking slot from the afternoon because itwas close to
that of Mr Mugabe's, but they failed to anticipate Mr
Nujoma'sattack.

"Here in southern Africa we have one problem and it
was created by theBritish," Mr Nujoma said, waving his finger. "The
Honourable Tony Blair ishere and they created the situation in
Zimbabwe."

Mr Blair was not in the chamber when Mr Mugabe departed from
his preparedtext on sustainable development to make his most inflammatory
remarks.

"Sustainable development is not possible without agrarian
reforms thatacknowledge that land comes first before all else and that all
else growsfrom the land," he said.

"In our situation, this
fundamental has pitted the black majority against anobdurate and
internationally well-connected racial minority, largely ofBritish descent,
brought in and sustained by British colonialism, now beingsupported and
manipulated by the Blair government."

Mr Mugabe's remarks on the
sovereignty of Zimbabwe generated most applause.

"We say this as
Zimbabweans: we have fought for our land, we have fought forour sovereignty;
small as we are, we have won our independence and we areprepared to shed our
blood in sustenance and maintenance and protection ofthat
independence.

"We do not mind having and bearing sanctions banning us
from Europe; we arenot Europeans; we have not asked for any square inch of
that territory. So,Blair, keep your England and let me keep my
Zimbabwe."

Mr Mugabe's words divided the summit between the developing
and thedeveloped worlds.

One of his sternest critics, the New Zealand
prime minister, Helen Clark,blamed his policies for exacerbating a food
crisis in southern Africa.

Without naming him, she said pointedly: "In
one case, this disaster has beenmade much worse by deliberate and cynical
government policies."

But the generally positive reaction to the
outbursts underlined how theindignation felt by Britain, Europe and America
at Mr Mugabe's land-grabpolicy is not shared by many in
Africa.

Speaking 10 minutes after Mr Nujoma, Mr Blair stressed the main
theme of thesummit: the need to fight poverty.

The industrialised
world must open up its markets to developing countries,he said.

He
also stressed his "passion for Africa". But as he flew home last nightafter
12 hours in South Africa, that passion will have been stretched tobreaking
point.

The Tories criticised Mr Blair for failing to deal with Zimbabwe
in hisspeech. Michael Ancram, the Tory party chairman, said his "reheated
andhigh-flown rhetoric" had ignored the seriousness of the
situation.

"The nearest the Prime Minister came to addressing the horrors
of Zimbabwewas to refer, in Mozambique [on Sunday] to Mugabe's
'incompetence,mismanagement and corruption'," he said.

"Those who are
being persecuted, tortured, raped, murdered and deliberatelystarved will
find little recognition in these mealy-mouthed words."

Mr Blair later
dismissed Mr Nujoma's comments. "What the president ofNamibia said is what
he has always said - he said it at the Commonwealthheads of government
meeting a few months ago. It doesn't make it any moresensible,
however."

The Prime Minister insisted that the view expressed by Mr
Mugabe and MrNujoma was not "the voice of Africa", although there is no
willingness fromSouth Africa or other neighbouring countries to back
Britain's condemnationof the Mugabe regime.

Thabo Mbeki, the South
African president and chairman of the summit, didnothing to rein in the
Mugabe camp, risking Britain's unqualified backingfor Mr Mbeki's economic
regeneration plan.

IOL

Blair hits back at 'corrupt' Mugabe

September 03 2002 at
06:39PM

Sedgefield, England - British Prime Minister Tony Blair
hit back atZimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Tuesday, accusing him of
talking"rubbish about neo-colonialism" which most other African leaders
wouldreject.

Blair told a news conference Mugabe's was a "corrupt and
ruinous" regimewhich was harming the poor people of Zimbabwe more than
anyone else.

Mugabe used a speech to the Earth Summit in Johannesburg on
Monday to attackBritain - the former colonial power - and to lambast Blair
for opposing hisprogramme of land reform.

"We have not asked for any
inch of Europe or any square inch of thatterritory so, Blair, keep your
England and let me keep my Zimbabwe," Mugabesaid in his speech to the World
Summit on Sustainable Development.

'If you don't change, we are
going to get you'But Blair dismissed Mugabe as a minority voice.

"The
vast majority of African leaders would totally dissociate themselvesfrom
what he said yesterday," Blair told a news conference in Sedgefield,his
parliamentary constituency in northeast England.

"And this rubbish about
neo-colonialism, that is just merely a cloak, acover, for what is a corrupt
and ruinous regime."

Blair said what Mugabe was doing in Zimbabwe was a
"terrible, terribletragedy" for a nation which could be one of the richest
in southern Africa,but whose population was instead facing food shortages
and potential famine.

Blair has also come under fire in recent days from
Namibian President SamNujoma - a key Mugabe ally - who on Tuesday accused
Britain of enslaving thepeople of Africa and sucking the wealth out of their
countries.

"In the first place you enslaved us," Nujoma told BBC radio.
"On top of thatyou colonised us. You took all our wealth and you built up
your country andyou made Africa poorer."

Nujoma said African nations
could turn against the EU, slapping embargoes onthe export of raw materials
to Europe in retaliation for sanctions placed onthe Zimbabwean
leadership.

"If the EU does not lift the sanctions against Zimbabwe, the
whole Africanunion will also impose economic sanctions against Europe.
Either there ispeace or war and we don't want a war," he said. "Change your
attitudes. Ifyou don't change, we are going to get you."

The European
Union clamped personal sanctions on Mugabe and his inner circleafter
elections in March, citing governance, human rights and land issues.

But
Mugabe has vowed to press ahead with the eviction of 2 900 of thecountry's 4
500 remaining white commercial farmers, a majority of whom areof British
extraction.
IOL

Mugabe tirade gets Blair and Mbeki talking

September 03
2002 at 11:11AM

By John Battersby and Christelle
Terreblanche

Concern over Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's defiant
stance and attackon British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Johannesburg
summit featuredstrongly in a bi-lateral meeting between Blair and President
Thabo Mbeki onMonday.

Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad, said
Blair's concern was for thepeople of Zimbabwe, but he also feared the
Zimbabwe situation could spillout into the southern African
region.

Mbeki and Blair resolved to meet again soon in a formal
bi-lateral, Pahadsaid. They also discussed other African issues, such as the
situation in theDemocratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Angola, as well as
the problemsaround Iraq and the Palestinian issue.

Mbeki and
Blair resolved to meet again soonOn Monday Mugabe defended his land grab
policies at the World Summit,lambasting and ridiculing Blair for interfering
in his country's internalaffairs in a rousing speech which ended in
applause.

"The operations by Blair are completely artificial
and an unwarrantedinterference in our domestic affairs," Mugabe added, to
further applause.

Mugabe, who carried out his threat to use the summit as
a platform toadvocate his controversial land seizures, is headed for a
defeat at thehands of industrialised countries united against him, but has
won tacitencouragement from many developing countries sympathetic to his
land grabs.

Blair gave Mbeki his assurance that as far as his government
was concerned,what was happening in Zimbabwe should not be seen as
suggesting that this istrue for all of Africa. He also reiterated that money
pledged for Zimbabweanland reform is still available from Britain, but that
it will now be madeavailable only through the UN development
programme.

'It won't help our work as members of the Commonwealth
troika much'Pahad said Mbeki, who has lately been attacked viciously in the
Zimbabweanstate media, told Blair that he and Nigerian president Olusegun
Obasanjowere still trying to get negotiations going with
Mugabe.

Obasanjo said of Mugabe's speech: "It won't help our work as
members of theCommonwealth troika much."

The troika, consisting of
Obasango, Mbeki and Australian Prime Minister JohnHoward, decided to suspend
Zimbabwe from Commonwealth activities after theflawed Zimbabwean election in
March.

Earlier on Tuesday, Mugabe received spirited support from Namibian
PresidentSam Nujoma, who drew sustained applause from the summit plenary
when hedeparted from his prepared speech to deliver a frontal attack on
formercolonial powers and, in particular, Blair.

Nujoma blasted the
former colonial powers, blaming them for poverty andunderdevelopment in
Africa, which he described as the global "underdog".

The plenary session
was interrupted by rapturous applause and the obviousdelight of much of the
audience.

For
the victims of Robert Mugabe's tyrannous policies in Zimbabwe, for thewhite
farmers, their African farm workers and all who dare to oppose
himpolitically, yesterday's proceedings at the Earth Summit in
Johannesburgmust have seemed like the knell of doom.

As must have
been foreseen, Mr Mugabe and his supporters chose to hijack thedebate and to
deliver violent anti-"colonial" diatribes. To this our ownPrime Minister,
who had been advised to devote his speech to the mainagenda, could make no
adequate response.

The consequences in Africa may be far-reaching. Tony
Blair's agenda for anAfrican renaissance has suffered a setback.

Mr
Blair was stitched up. Sam Nujoma of Namibia, one of Mr Mugabe'sstrongest
African allies, knew just what was expected of him during thedebate on
sustainable development.

"We here in southern Africa have one big
problem, created by the British,"he told delegates. "The honourable Tony
Blair is here, and he created thesituation in Zimbabwe." That may be
recognised as nonsense in Europe andeven by a majority of the delegates in
Johannesburg. But in much of Africait will find agreement and
approval.

Sticking to his last, however, Mr Blair made no direct
response, the Britishline being that the Namibian president had been saying
the same thing foryears. In his own diatribe, Mr Mugabe then declared that
Zimbabwe was readyto shed blood to defend its land reforms and, in effect,
told Mr Blair toget packing.

It is not the first time that a summit
in South Africa has been hijacked inthis fashion. It happened in Durban last
year, where proceedings suddenlytook an ugly turn against America and
Israel. It was Lombard Street to aChina orange that the same thing would
happen in Johannesburg.

Mr Blair and his advisers preferred to avoid an
ugly wrangle off the mainagenda. But the situation in Zimbabwe is not only a
huge crisis for humanrights. It is proving increasingly damaging to Africa's
future.

There can well be different opinions about land use in Zimbabwe,
but onlyone view of a president who seizes productive land and presents it
to hiscronies and supporters, thus aggravating a famine which threatens the
livesof his countrymen. On top of that, he then manipulates the distribution
offood sent to relieve Zimbabwe in order to starve his political
opponents.

America, which has no time for colonialism, has recently
castigated thisbehaviour. Have we really nothing to say about it? So the
world has beenleft to suppose. It was an opportunity missed. There should
have been aresponse. Tactically, we suffered a defeat in Johannesburg
yesterday whichin the longer run may prove very damaging to Africa

Tony Blair was
yesterday subjected to a humiliating ambush in front ofdozens of world
leaders as the troubles of Zimbabwe threatened to overshadowthe earth
summit.The prime minister was lambasted in front of a shocked audience in
whatappeared to be a coordinated attack by the president of Namibia and
hisfriend Robert Mugabe.

The Namibian leader, Sam Nujoma, departed
from a prepared speech to accuseMr Blair of being a colonialist in the same
breath as referring to Britain'srole in the slave trade. The verbal assault,
during which Mr Nujomarepeatedly pointed out Mr Blair, came just before the
prime minister was tomake his own speech.

Mr Mugabe was seen laughing
as the Namibian leader waved angrily towards MrBlair saying Africa was the
poorest continent and needed money from therich.

"Here we have a
problem created by Britain, by Blair, the Britishcolonialist," he said. "The
British colonialists own 70 to 80% of the landin Zimbabwe, a tiny country,
with 14 million indigenous people with no land.The whole land is occupied
with hundreds and thousands of colonialists."

He paused, and again
pointing at the prime minister, added: "We, the Africanpeople, have suffered
more than other nations in the world from the slavetrade coming from
Liverpool in the UK to West Africa - Gambia, Ghana,Nigeria and even
Angola."

Some of the audience applauded, some laughed.

Mr Blair
had been at the conference less than an hour and had prepared hisown speech
to last five minutes, the time allotted each head of state. Hestuck to his
script and was ap plauded, especially when he referred to theplight of
Africa being "a scar on the conscience of the world" - a phrase heused at
last October's Labour conference.

He recounted his previous day's visit
to Mozambique and said he had metchildren every bit as bright as those in
Britain "and of equal worth who aredenied the same life chances. They needed
housing, water, sanitation,electricity and education."

Mr Nujoma had
already left the hall and Mr Mugabe did so before Mr Blair wascalled to the
podium. Mr Mugabe returned for the end of the Blair speech butdid not join
in the applause.

However, in his own speech he again berated Britain and
Mr Blair personally.After referring to the need for agrarian reform, he
said: "Inequitableaccess to land is at the heart of poverty, food insecurity
and lack ofdevelopment in Zimbabwe.

"This fundamental question has
pitted the black majority ... against anobdurate and internationally
well-connected racial minority, largely ofBritish descent and brought in and
sustained by British colonialism.Economically, we are an occupied country 22
years after our independence. Mygovernment has decided to do the only right
and just thing by taking backthe land and giving it to its rightful
indigenous, black owners who lost itin circumstances of colonial pillage. We
have no apologies to make toanyone.

"We have fought for our land, we
are prepared to shed our blood insustaining and maintaining our
independence."

He added: "Blair, keep your England and let me keep my
Zimbabwe".

Mr Mugabe has vowed to press ahead with the eviction of 2,900
of thecountry's 4,500 remaining white commercial farmers despite legal
challengesat home and criticism in the west.

The extent of Mr Blair's
obvious hurt and anger became clear during a visitto the Johannesburg
township of Alexandra. When asked about the speech hesaid: "We do not need
to be told of the importance of Africa. The presidentof Namibia has sought
to defend the utterly indefensible in Mr Mugabe. He isimpoverishing his
nation, he is depriving people of democracy. He makes itvery difficult to
fight for Africa. Good governance needs to go hand in handwith development
and the majority of African leaders fully support theprinciples of good
governance we stand for.

"It is important we do not get the idea this is
the voice of Africa. It is not."
Independent (UK)

04 September 2002

President Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe has systematically reduced his owncountry, especially in
the past two years, into a basket case and severelyhandicapped some African
leaders' attempts to overturn the continent'snegative image. Wherever they
have gone to sell the ambitious NewPartnership for Africa's Development
(Nepad), these leaders have had theembarrassing situation in Zimbabwe thrown
at them.

Mr Mugabe, it seems, is no longer content with merely wrecking
his owncountry, which now has to beg for food in order to survive. Instead,
hewants to take all of Africa along with him, with his friend and ally
SamNujoma of Namibia marching right behind him. For Western sceptics who
heardthe two men lashing at Tony Blair in Johannesburg on Monday, their
tirade issufficient proof that Africa is truly irredeemable.

Mr
Mugabe, it will be pointed out correctly, represents the embodiment ofjust
about everything that African leaders have recently committedthemselves to
moving away from: flagrant disregard for human rights, lack ofrespect for
the rule of law, harassment of the media and those he regards asopponents
and the staging of fraudulent elections and the concomitantsubversion of the
will of the electorate, among other things.

These are things of which
Nepad, with its much-vaunted peer reviewmechanism, strongly disapproves,
promoting as it does democracy, goodgovernance and a sound management of the
economy, among other things. Andyet, when Mr Mugabe stoutly defended his
policies and criticised Mr Blair,he was applauded by a sizeable number of
leaders - some of them Africans -as well as some journalists covering the
event.

Does that mean that the Africa that wants the world to believe it
iscommitted to democracy actually approves of what has been going on
inZimbabwe since around March 2000? After all, if Africans did not approve
ofMr Mugabe's blatant abuse of human rights and lack of respect for
hiscountry's courts, why did they applaud him when defended these
despicablepolicies?

Two points need to be made. The first is that
African leaders were not alonein applauding Mr Mugabe. They were joined by
some leaders of otherdeveloping countries. This must mean that some of Mr
Mugabe's views alsostruck a chord with them. The second is that applause for
Mr Mugabe does notnecessarily imply wholesale endorsement of what he said,
let alone approvalof what he has been doing in Zimbabwe.

The applause
can be explained by the fact that there was a lot of truth inwhat he said.
There is a serious land problem in Zimbabwe, and noself-respecting African
would find acceptable a situation where 20 yearsafter independence vast
tracts of land continue to be monopolised by aminority. So the land inequity
had to change to a much fairer system thatwould see the majority getting
back some of their forebears' land. For thatthere would be applause from
people confronting similar problems in theirown countries.

There
would be a justified applause, too, for Mr Mugabe's assertion thatformer
colonial powers like Britain were the cause of the land problem inthe first
place, in addition to the positive legacy of infrastructure thatthey left
behind. It reflects very poorly on the UK that, despite itscommitment in the
Lancaster House Agreement to helping Zimbabwe address itsland problems in a
legal and orderly manner, the money has yet to be
madeavailable.

Where many would differ with Mr Mugabe is over the
objectionable and illegalmethods he has used to address the problem, and
that the necessary landreform is used for political ends. Mr Mugabe has been
at the head of theZimbabwean government since independence 22 years ago, yet
it was not untilhe faced a political challenge from the fledgling Movement
for DemocraticChange that he started to talk about land reform.

That
is why it has been difficult for African leaders to stand on publicplatforms
and denounce Mr Mugabe, as the West has repeatedly demanded. Theyagree with
him on the need for land to be transferred to the majority, butare deeply
embarrassed by the methods he has used to achieve that goal andthe way he
has stolen the March elections and generally violated
humanrights.

The Namibian President, on the other hand, is a close
friend and politicalally of Mr Mugabe. In the past three months he has
himself warned Namibia's"arrogant white farmers" to co-operate with his land
redistributionprogramme or face a fate similar to the one visited upon their
Zimbabweancounterparts. It appears that Mr Nujoma, who got his country's
constitutionamended to enable him to serve a third term, is planning to take
a leaf fromMr Mugabe's book and may be preparing both his country and the
internationalcommunity for that period.

My impression is that the
other leaders will continue to champion Nepad andadhere to legal and orderly
land reform in their respective countries. MrBlair is correct when he
insists that Mr Mugabe and Mr Nujoma represent aminority in
Africa.

The most unfortunate part for Nepad and its champions, such as
SouthAfrica's President Thabo Mbeki, is that the man singled out for such
publicridicule on Monday also happens to be Africa's strongest friend in the
West

BBC

Tuesday, 3 September, 2002, 19:21 GMT 20:21
UK

Zimbabwe faces 'disaster'

Mugabe runs a 'corrupt and ruinous regime', says
Blair

Zimbabwe is facing a potential humanitarian disaster at the
hands of a "corrupt and ruinous regime", Prime Minister Tony Blair has warned.

He fiercely rebuked Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's criticism of Britain's
colonial past, claiming it was "nonsense", stressing that most African leaders
would disassociate themselves from the comments.

It is a shame that people think that Mugabe speaks for Africa
- he doesn't

Tony Blair

Mr Blair insisted
that Mr Mugabe had refused to take up cash available for land reform through a
UN programme.

He said the situation was "a terrible, terrible tragedy".

The prime minister was speaking at a presidential style press conference in
his Sedgefield constituency just hours after returning from the world summit at
Johannesburg, where Mr Mugabe had launched his attack on Britain.

'Rubbish'

Mr Blair told reporters on Tuesday: "It is a shame that people think that
Mugabe speaks for Africa - he doesn't.

"The vast majority of African leaders would totally disassociate themselves
from what he said yesterday - this rubbish about neo-colonialism.

"That is merely a cloak, a cover for what is a corrupt, ruinous regime that
is damaging, most of all, poor black people in Zimbabwe."

Tony Blair has been accused of
interfering

Mr Blair
said the international community should be considering what it could do about
the crisis in Zimbabwe.

But he said: "The trouble is the number of levers we have in our hands are
limited.

"There is a potential humanitarian disaster there."

'Ruined the country'

Mr Blair told how he had watched grain being off-loaded from a ship in
Mozambique that was destined for Zimbabwe.

"Zimbabwe is potentially one of the richest grain nations in the world but
because of the way he (Mugabe) has ruined the country it is having to import
grain for its people," the prime minister said.

It was "nonsense" to say that the UK had "held up" land reform.

"The money is there for land reform. He could get that money and use it for
land reform - because land reform is necessary - at any point in time he
wanted," said Mr Blair.

"The only demand that has been made is that it is done through the UN
programme in order to make sure that the money goes to the poor people that
actually need it and not into the pockets of him and his henchmen and the other
people running the show."

TWO weeks ago Richard
Galloway, 41, was given three days to getoff his farm in the Tsatsi
district, about 60 miles north of Harare, undereviction orders issued to
more than 3,000 white Zimbabwean farmers. He didit in 17 hours on one day.
Solid wood furniture is scattered around the yardof the farm where his
family are living temporarily. It was Mr Galloway's only farm.
President Mugabe's Earth Summitassurance yesterday that only white farmers
with more than one farm wouldlose land has proved empty, as it has for at
least 1,500 others. "I amwalking away from millions and millions of
(Zimbabwe) dollars," he said. Thefamily has decided to emigrate. "For kids
to be brought up in thisenvironment is just dreadful. It's not right for
them to be brought up withthis racial stigma attached to
them."

Late last month farm workers, told by Mr Mugabe's
militias thatthey were due massive retrenchment packages from Mr Galloway
because he hadbeen forced to stop farming, besieged the homestead to demand
their money.They beat drums all day and night for five days and kept
bonfires blazingaround the homestead. They chanted "white pig" and
threatened to decapitatethe farmer and his family.

"You
turn the lights off and you keep the television on, justloud enough to try
and drown out the drums," his wife, Heather, 40, said.

In
December six armed robbers burst into the homestead firingguns. Somehow the
family survived.

"You are actually scared of being white in
Zimbabwe," MrsGalloway said. "You come across a roadblock and you know you
haven't got anyweapons, you've done nothing wrong. But your heart is in your
mouth."

When she came unexpectedly across a police roadblock
recently,her three children, Kyle, 11, Storm, 8, and Kelsey, 5, wanted to
dive underthe back seat in fear. They all sleep in the same bed for
comfort.

"For any reason, you could be the one they decide to
abuse," shesaid. "Living with a system that has broken down is terrifying. I
amconstantly nervous, I worry. What could we possibly have done wrong?
Icannot wait to get out."

At the children's school,
teachers spend the first two hours ofthe day counselling disturbed pupils.
"Each one's trauma affects the wholegroup," Mrs Galloway said. "Their
biggest fear is what will happen to my Mumand Dad, will they still be home
when they go back for the weekend?" Afull-time professional counsellor has
been engaged to help the children todeal with their fear. "The horror
stories that come out are appalling," shesaid.

Months of
racist invective from squatters, disgruntled workersand state television, as
well as their humiliating eviction, the loss offriends and having to leave
the district, came home to the Galloways whenKyle's best friend asked: "Will
Mr Mugabe ever forgive us?" Mr Gallowaysaid: "Kids feel as if they and their
parents have done something wrong. Youhave to explain to them, we've done
nothing wrong."

Zimbabwe: Government Authorities Intensify Their Campaign to
SilenceDissent

* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat
of AmnestyInternational *

2 September 2002AFR
46/041/2002

As local council elections approach in September,
AmnestyInternational is deeply concerned that the Zimbabwean authorities
areintensifying harassment of human rights organizations, the
independentmedia and the judiciary.

On 29 August, Dr. Frances
Lovemore, Medical Director of Amani Trust, aleading human rights NGO in
Zimbabwe, was arrested in Harare. Dr.Lovemore and charged with "publishing
or communicating falsestatements prejudicial to the state". The charge
apparently stems fromrecent press reports which referred to Amani Trust's
work with victimsof torture and politically motivated rape in Zimbabwe. Dr.
Lovemorewas quoted in the Daily Telegraph (UK) on 25 August 2002 as
saying"Mugabe men use rape as revenge". She was released on 30 August,
andall charges against her dropped due to insufficient
evidence.

"Amnesty International views the arrest of Dr Lovemore as an
attemptto intimidate a human rights defender. The international
communityshould take every step to support the work of Zimbabwean human
rightsNGOs which place themselves at risk in documenting cases of
humanrights violations and in treating victims".

Also on 29 August,
the Harare office of Voice of the People (VOP), oneof Zimbabwe's two
independent broadcasting organizations was bombed inthe middle of the night.
No one was injured but damage to the buildingwas extensive. No one has
claimed official responsibility for theattack. Voice of the People has
managed to operate despite restrictivemedia laws passed in 2002, by
transmitting to Zimbabwe from theNetherlands via shortwave.

The
government has also stepped up its harassment of the judiciary, aswitnessed
by several recent attacks on magistrates. On 16 August 2002in the eastern
town of Chipinge, Manicaland province, districtmagistrate Walter Chikwanha
was reportedly dragged from his courtroomby suspected war veterans and
assaulted at the government complex. Noone has been arrested in connection
with the attack which is allegedto be in response to Chikwanha's dismissal
of an application by theState to remand in custody five MDC officials who
along with twoothers, were accused of burning two government tractors in
Chipinge.Following their release, the five were re-arrested, but
Chikwanharefused to place them in custody on the basis that the State did
nothave sufficient evidence to warrant their detention.

Just over a
week after the attack on Chikwanha, Godfrey Gwaka, themagistrate for Zaka
district, Masvingo province, was stabbed on 26August at Zaka service centre.
It is suspected that the attack isrelated to recent judgements Gwaka has
made on political parties. Heis presently receiving medical attention in
hospital in Zaka.

"The recent arrest of Dr Lovemore, the bombing of the
office of theVOP and the assaults on magistrates is evidence of a clampdown
oncritics of the government as the September elections draw
nearer,"Amnesty International said.

"The attacks on the magistrates
reflect on-going attempts on the partof government authorities and state
sponsored 'militia' to underminethe judicial system and prevent court
officials from executing theirduties impartially and professionally," the
organization added.

Background

Through its work with torture
victims, Amani Trust has assisted womenwho have been raped. The
circumstances surrounding these rapes andother sexual assaults indicated
that they were politically motivated.Amnesty International, in its report
published in June 2002 entitledZIMBABWE: The toll of impunity (AFR
46/034/2002), expressed particularconcern at the increasing number of
reports of rape and other forms ofsexual torture by state-sponsored
'militia'.

The toll of impunity also documented the undermining of the
judiciaryby the government, which openly defied superior court rulings
thatcontradicted its policy as well as implementing a campaign
ofharassment of judges who were executing their duties in an
impartialand professional manner.

In the report, Amnesty
International called for the repeal of thoselaws such as the Public Order
and Security Act (POSA) and the Accessto Information and Protection of
Privacy Act, (AIPPA) which do notconform with international human rights
standards. The POSA enacted inJanuary 2002 and the AIPPA, enacted in March
2002, have been used byZimbabwean authorities to curtail civil liberties,
particularly thefreedoms of expression and assembly, and create a negative
humanrights climate.

Tensions between Zimbabwe and Britain, its former
colonial ruler,overshadowed negotiations on the environment, the papers
said.

Mugabe walked out when Blair addressed about 100 heads of state
andgovernment gathered in Johannesburg for deliberations on alleviating
extremepoverty and protecting the environment.

In his own address,
Mugabe then told Blair to "keep your England and let mekeep my
Zimbabwe".

Meanwhile, Namibia's President Sam Nujoma called for an end to
sanctionsagainst Zimbabwe and accused the West, particularly Britain, of
mounting acampaign against the southern African state.

Britain's
Daily Mail said the attacks showed "the so-called internationalcommunity at
its poisonous worst".

The paper, whose front-page headline was
"Ambushed", added: "It is difficultto imagine an uglier display of hypocrisy
or a worse advertisement for theinvestment Africa so desperately
needs."

Trevor Kavanagh, the political editor of the Sun, Britain's
biggest sellingdaily tabloid, said: "The surprise was not that he (Mugabe)
delivered such achilling message of hate. The real shock was the fervent
applause for hisinflammatory outburst.

"It was a worrying spectacle
at the Earth Summit ... staged to end the sortof poverty over which Mugabe
presides."

The right-of-centre Daily Telegraph broadsheet said Blair was
"stitched up",and argued that he should have made a direct response to
Mugabe rather thanchoosing to "avoid an ugly wrangle off the main
agenda".

"Tactically, we suffered a defeat in Johannesburg yesterday
which in thelonger run may prove very damaging to Africa," the paper said,
adding thatthe situation in Zimbabwe was proving a "huge crisis for human
rights".

Britain has been at the forefront of EU and Commonwealth
sanctions,including a travel ban on dozens of key officials, aimed at
isolatingMugabe's government.

Mugabe is under fire in the West for
his seizure of white farmers' land forblacks at a time when six million
people - about half the population - arefacing the threat of
starvation.

His land policy, which recently saw more than 300 white
farmers arrested forrefusing to leave their land, is seen as having hurt
agriculture andcontributed to the food crisis.

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe used the occasion of
the World Summit in Johannesburg to launch a blistering attack on Western
nations and institutions, and to defend his controversial policy of land reform.

What follows is excerpts of his speech, as broadcast live on South African
Television.

Ten years ago we gathered in Rio de Janeiro, in the same numbers, and we were
moved by the same developmental anxieties that many of us have today.

Sustainable development is not possible without agrarian
reforms that acknowledge in our case that land comes first, before all else and
that all else grows from and off the land

We worried about our troubled earth and its dangerously diminishing flora and
fauna. We worried about the variegated poor of our societies in their swelling
numbers and ever deepening distressful social conditions.

We complained about their unequal economic power that existed, that still
exists between the north and the south and had historically reposed itself in
our international institutions, including the United Nations.

Indeed we denounced the debt burden by which the rich north continue to take
away from the impoverished south, even that little which they still had.

'Bad governance'

Your Excellencies, we must examine why 10 years after Rio, the poor remain
very much with us, poorer and far more exposed and vulnerable than ever before.

Outdated institutions dominate the world for the realization
of the strategic national goals of the rich north

Our children suffer from malnutrition, hunger and diseases, compounded now by
the deadly HIV-Aids pandemic.

The betrayal of the collective agenda we set ourselves at Rio is a compelling
manifestation of bad global governance, lack of real political will by the north
and a total absence of a just rule of law in international affairs.

We join our brothers and sisters in the Third World in rejecting completely
manipulative and intimidatory attempts by some countries and regional blocs that
are bent on subordinating our sovereignty to their hegemonic ambitions and
imperialist interests, falsely presented as matters of rule of law, democracy
and good governance.

'Meddling'

The real objective is interference in our domestic affairs. The rule of law,
democracy and governance are indeed values that we cherish because we fought for
them against the very same people who today seek to preach them to us.

The poor should be able to use their sovereignty to fight poverty and
preserve their heritage in their corner of the earth without interference.

That is why we in Zimbabwe understand only too well, that sustainable
development is not possible without agrarian reforms that acknowledge in our
case that land comes first, before all else and that all else grows from and off
the land.

This is the one asset that not only defines the Zimbabwean personality and
demarcates sovereignty, but also an asset that has a direct bearing on the
fortunes of the poor and prospects for their immediate empowerment and
sustainable development.

Blair attacked

So those operations which are underway of how to uplift those who are
threatened in Zimbabwe by the regime of Mugabe as it is said, really are
undeserved.

We are threatening no one and therefore the operations by Mr Blair are
artificial, completely uncalled for and an interference in our domestic affairs.

Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe

But we say this as Zimbabweans. We have fought for our land. We have fought
for our sovereignty, small as we are. We have won our independence and we are
prepared to shed our blood in sustenance and maintenance and protection of that
independence.

Having said that may I say we wish no harm to anyone. We are Zimbabweans. We
are Africans. We are not English. We are not Europeans. We love Africa.

We love Zimbabwe. We love our independence. We are working together in our
region to improve the lot of our people. Let no one interfere with our
processes. Let no one who is negative want to spoil what we are doing for
ourselves in order to unite Africa.

We belong to this continent. We don't mind having and bearing sanctions
banning us from Europe. We are not Europeans. We have not asked for any inch of
Europe or any square inch of that territory.

So, Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe.

Regional cooperation

Mr Chairman, having said that, may I say we are happy that in our region,
through SADC, through Comesa and through Ecowas, we are doing our best to
sustain our environment in every way possible.

We keep our forests, we keep our animals, we keep even our reptiles plus
insects. We look after our elephants and ivory. We look after our lions as they
roar everywhere.

We want to be friends and not enemies of other regions

We sustain our environment, are committed to doing that, not just now but in
the future because we want a heritage.

But we will need support. We want to interact with other regions. We want to
be friends and not enemies of other regions.

We want to work together and that is why the theme of this conference is very
important to us. Not only has it brought us together, but we hope at the end of
it, it will have cemented our relations, our oneness to work for this globe
which is ours together.

03sep02ZIMBABWE was ready to "shed
blood" to defend its land reforms, PresidentRobert Mugabe told the world's
leaders at the Earth Summit in Johannesburgtoday as he slammed British Prime
Minister Tony Blair.

Mugabe called on the summit to adopt a program that
would allow Africans toenjoy sustainable development "not as puppets, not as
beggars but assovereign people" and told Blair to "keep your England and let
me keep myZimbabwe."

A sizeable number of delegates applauded
enthusiastically several timesduring Mugabe's speech.

"Opposition by
Blair is artificial and a complete interference in oursovereignty. We fought
for the land and fought for our sovereignty and weare prepared to shed our
blood for their sustenance and maintenance ofthat," he said.

Mugabe
is under mounting western criticism over his seizure of whitefarmers' land
for blacks when 6 million people -- about half thepopulation -- are facing
the threat of starvation.

Britain has been at the forefront of EU and
Commonwealth sanctions --including a travel ban on dozens of key officials
-- aimed at isolatingMugabe's government. It has said it might evacuate some
20,000 Britishcitizens living in Zimbabwe if they were
attacked.

Mugabe said criticisms of Zimbabwe's land policy "really is
undeserved" aswhite farmers, many of whom were British nationals, were not
deprived oftheir land.

"Ownership must rest primarily with the black
majority, not with theobdurate and internationally well connected group of
whites farmerssupported and manipulated by the Blair government," he
said.

"We shall not deprive the white farmers of land. They will have at
least onefarm but they want more -- 15, 20 and even 35 farms. No farmer is
being leftwithout land."

He said the international development
paradigm must shift away from theglobal, corporate pattern to a
people-oriented system.

Mugabe also took a swipe at the International
Monetary Fund (IMF), saying it"never has been a fund for the poor" and was
used by rich industrialisedcountries to dominate the world.

Even the
United Nations remained "unreformed" and insensitive to the needsof the
developing world, he said.

"We reject the manipulative and intimidatory
countries and regional blocsaimed at subordinating our sovereignty with
false concepts of the rule oflaw, democracy and good governance," he
said.

Mugabe's regime has become increasingly isolated since
presidentialelections in March, with sanctions imposed by the European
Union, the UnitedStates, Canada, New Zealand and Switzerland, who accuse the
Mugabe regime ofvote fraud and political violence.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) - A defiant Zimbabwean
President RobertMugabe on Monday blamed Britain and other rich countries for
the poverty anddespair in his country.

Mugabe, speaking at the World
Summit, also defended his seizure of whitefarms, saying the program pitted
the majority against an ``obdurate'' racialminority ``supported and
manipulated'' by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

``We have not asked
for any inch of Europe,'' said Mugabe. ``So, Blair keepyour England and let
me keep my Zimbabwe.''

But some here said Mugabe's Zimbabwe offered
delegates a troubling glimpseof the future and the human cost of failure to
confront the huge globalproblems faced by the summit.

More than half
of Zimbabwe's 12.5 million people face imminent starvation.Its once vibrant
economy teeters on the brink of collapse. More than 70percent of its people
live in poverty. Most are unemployed. They lack properhousing, basic health
care, clean water, sanitation, electricity and qualityeducation for their
children.

In
just five years, Zimbabwe has fallen from a relatively prosperous andstable
country to one wracked by economic despair and government-sponsoredpolitical
violence.

Zimbabwe government statistics indicate the economy has shrunk
by 28 percentand per capita income has been cut almost in half to $380 a
year.

Inflation last month reached an annual rate of 123 percent, and
independenteconomist John Robinson in Harare predicted it could reach 1,000
percent bythe end of the year.

Mugabe's Education Ministry said
school enrollments and literacy havedeclined by a third in the past decade.
In 1990, Zimbabwe was the pride ofAfrica with a literacy rate of 70
percent.

Access to clinics and medicine was also declining rapidly,
Mugabe's HealthMinistry said. Since 1998, malnutrition was associated with
half of allchildhood deaths.

Despite a looming famine in southern
Africa, Mugabe has continued with theseizure of 95 percent of the
white-owned farmland in Zimbabwe, bringing to astandstill an industry that
once helped feed southern Africa and accountedfor a third of Zimbabwe's
foreign exchange earnings.

Even U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a
speech last Tuesday, urgedZimbabwe to change its land policies to help stave
off famine. Annan alsocalled on Zimbabwe to observe its own laws and
compensate displaced farmers.

The United States has called it ``madness''
to seize farms and arrestfarmers at a time when starvation threatens more
than 6 million Zimbabweans.

Mugabe claims the seizures are necessary to
correct lingering colonialinjustices and to empower thousands of poor,
black, landless Zimbabweans.

But while his government has given thousands
of poor Zimbabweans access,though not title, to small plots of land, many of
the biggest and best farmshave gone to Mugabe's relatives, government
ministers, ruling partyofficials and even journalists in the state-run
media.

One large farm went to Mugabe's wife Grace, another to his sister
Sabrina.

Mugabe dismissed the criticisms of his government as attempts by
somecountries and regional blocs ``bent on subordinating our sovereignty''
totheir ambitions.

``The real objective is interference in our
domestic affairs. The rule oflaw, democracy and governance are indeed values
that we cherish because wefought for them against the very same people who
today seek to preach themto us,'' said Mugabe.

Dear Family and Friends,It's been a long time since I wrote a personal
letter about my own life inZimbabwe and since so many of you have made me a
part of your lives I wouldlike to tell you now what has been happening to me
as I've walked the veryfrightening path of a victim who refuses to be
silenced.I have spent the last few days of the school holidays playing a
marathongame of Monopoly with my 10 year old son Richard and they have been
specialdays which have taught us both a lot of lessons. Richard swung
betweenelation when he was winning and a quivering lower lip when he was
losing. Asturn after turn I landed on his hotels, Richie watched his Mum
goingbankrupt and when I finally had no money left and all my properties
weremortgaged to the bank, he got very upset as the game drew to a
shudderingclose and I had lost. Richie learnt that it isn't always fun to
win and Ilearnt that life, like Monopoly, sometimes deals you a whole series
of badhands. On the 28th of February 2000 I lost my home, livelihood and job
whenstrange men came to our gate and declared that everything on Stow
Farmbelonged to them. On the 20th April 2002 a man who called himself
Windevicted the tenants leasing Stow Farm and moved into the family house.
Heevicted the workers from their houses, took over our farm store,
destroyedthe borehole and water supply and removed my last source of income
in theform of rental. Stow Farm and a monopoly game are not the only losses
I havehad to come to terms with. I've been fighting back tears of anger
anddespair all week as the South African publishers of my book African
Tearshave held out to the last minute before finally announcing yesterday
thatthey are closing down. Covos Day Books is jointly owned by an ex
Zimbabweanand a British lawyer who was last week in Kenya distributing
Britishgovernment money to nomadic Masai herders. Covos Day Books have never
paidme one cent of the royalties owed for the sale of 10 000 copies of
AfricanTears. Neither have they paid me for the serialization rights to the
bookwhich were bought and paid for in May 2001 by the UK Sunday Times,
RapportNewspaper and Femina magazine in South Africa. Today I faced the
realitythat I had lost 2 years of my life and income but am picking myself
up now.I will not be beaten and have found another publisher. Jonathan
BallPublishing in Johannesburg and Cape Town are producing my new book which
iscalled Beyond Tears and both this and a re-issue of African Tears will be
inprint in early October. I remain determined that the world hears about
thehorrors in Zimbabwe. The more outspoken I have been about the situation
inthe country, the scarier my life has become. I've been forced to go
intohiding, have been warned that my house would be petrol bombed and
havereceived threats against my physical safety.I am frequently bombarded
withobscene hate mail and my forms of communication are regularly
"tampered"with. On many occasions the burdens have almost been too much to
bear butalways the goodness of ordinary people has kept me sane and given me
thecourage to go on. Every week I receive hundreds of emails, letters
andparcels from people all over the world who read this letter. Strangers
sendfood and toiletries, salt and coffee. People send poems and
prayers,stickers and little treats for Richie and I. When I wrote about my
elderlyneighbour begging for money for a loaf of bread, messages poured in
from allover the world, parcels arrived for Jim and complete strangers
helped me tohelp him. Life for us all in Zimbabwe has become a case of
helping oneanother to survive, financially, emotionally and spiritually.
This morning Imet with a long lost black friend. There were huge embraces
and smiles whichsoon became tears when he told me how he too had lost
everything. Hisbusiness in the tourism industry has collapsed, his shop and
all it'scontents have been burned to cinders by government supporters and he
has hadto send his wife and three children to the other side of the country
asthere is no food in his home area. He is not giving up though and will
findways to rebuild his life when Zimbabwe's madness is over. We are not
brokenyet, each and every blow builds strength and determination. My losses
areminute compared to the losses of our now starving country and
desperatepeople ravaged by an issue which is not about land or race but
onlypolitics. As a friend said to me last week: you reap what you sow
althoughnot always where you sowed it. Until next week, with love and
thanks, cathy.http://africantears.netfirms.com
Copyright: Cathy Buckle, 30th August 2002.

As we grow closer to the CITES
meeting in Rio, and we have supposedly come to the end of the "fast-track"
political programme, it has been very pleasing to have Department of National
Parks concerned enough to carry out an anti poaching exercise in
Mwenezi.

From reports coming in they have made
12 arrests of poachers on Bubye River and Sangokwe Ranches, from August 28th to
30th. The DNP team carried out a fine job working with enthusiasm. On the first
day they arrested four poachers and recovered carcases from 3 Kudu, 1 Warthog, 2
Zebra, I Wildebeest, I Impala and 1 Eland cow. Although they were taken to the
Police they were soon released with 8 hours community service as punishment!
This most certainly does not encourage either the scouts or rangers who daily
risk their lives to protect wildlife which is being bred and cared for for
future generations.

Police action is still pending on the
other eight who were arrested over the next two days when 3 Giraffe, 2 Kudu, 3
Warthog and 2 Kudu carcases were recovered.

The total value of these animals is
$126,000 valued at the out-dated DNP rate as in SI 115, or a trophy fee worked
on ZW$600 to US$1 is $7,185,000.

This represents three days kill by 12
people on a relatively small area, and is only the small amount of slaughtered
game which has been accounted for. If this figure is extrapolated against the
number of properties being subjected to this suspected State encouraged
lawlessness, or by the number of animals per hectare then this figure would be
horrifying, and absolutely unsustainable.

This therefore represents the mere
tip of the iceberg of a massive destruction of unwilling victims caught up in a
desperate political battle over power and a revolutionary method of distribution
of wealth. Will there be any natural resources ever left for our children, the
future citizens of Zimbabwe, to either exploit, or even to see and enjoy, at the
end of this destructive and unnecessary political action?

Harare - Zimbabwe's white
farmers disputed claims by President Robert Mugabeon Monday that he was not
seizing land from single farm owners for hiscontroversial land resettlement
policies.

Mugabe told the World Summit that no white farmer would be left
landlessunder the land reform exercise. "We have said even as we acquire
land weshall not deprive the white farmers of rights completely," Mugabe
said.

"Every one of them is entitled to at least one farm. But they would
want tocontinue to have more than one farm. More than one farm indeed.
Fifteen, 20,35 farms for one person; these are not figures I am just getting
out of mymind. They are real figures."

'Every one of them is
entitled to at least one farm'But representatives of white farmers disputed
Mugabe's claims, saying atleast 1 000 farmers of the 2 900 ordered to
surrender their properties weresingle farm owners.

"There is always a
great chasm between the words of Mugabe and what ishappening on the ground,"
said Jenni Williams, of Justice in Agriculture, anew lobby
group.

Commercial Farmers Union director David Hasluck said the farmers
would begrateful to Mugabe if upon his arrival back in Harare he could order
thede-listing of properties belonging to single farm owners in line with
hisspeech. - Independent Foreign Service

The international community has
been guilty of ''hand wringing'' overZimbabwean president Robert Mugabe's
''tyrannical'' rule of his country,David Trimble claimed today.

Mr
Trimble claimed ahead of a meeting in South Africa on the margins of
theEarth Summit with a senior figure in the Zimabwean opposition that
thegreatest gift Western leaders could give to developing nations
was``democracy and the rule of law, not cheques to be used by dictators
tosquander``.

Commenting ahead of a meeting with Themba Biti, the
foreign affairsspokesman of the Movement for Democratic Change, the former
Nobel PeacePrize winner said: ``The uncomfortable truth is that most
Africans arerelatively poorer now than they were under
colonialism.

``In the ghastly mess that is Zimbabwe a tyrannical
president in just 20years has turned Africa`s larder into a model for how
not to do things.

``Zimbabweans starve as a result of crazed land
policies and Mugabe`sadventurism in central African wars.

``This
massive wastage of natural resources has been allowed to occurbecause basic
human and democratic rights are denied.

``The contrast with neighbouring
Botswana - a fully functioning peacefuldemocracy since independence,
consequently prosperous and the only blackAfrican nation able to afford the
retroviral drugs needed to combat the HIVpandemic - is stark.``

Mr
Trimble was commenting after President Mugabe`s defiant call on
PrimeMinister Tony Blair`s Government yesterday to stop interfering in
hiscountry`s affairs.

Britain, which formerly ruled Zimbabwe, has
been a strong critic ofPresident Mugabe`s policy of redistributing
white-owned land to blackfarmers.

In an uncompromising speech at the
Johannesburg summit of world leaders,President Mugabe told the Blair
Government: ``Keep your England and let mekeep my Zimbabwe.

``We are
African, we are not British or European. We are doing our best tosustain our
environment in every way possible.

``We have fought for our land, we have
fought for our sovereignty, small aswe are, we have won our independence and
we are prepared to shed ourblood.``

Critics of Mr Mugabe`s Government
have been detained in Zimbabwe andjournalists reporting human rights abuses
have either been censored orforced to smuggle their work out of the
country.

Prime Minister Tony Blair avoided the issue of Zimbabwe in his
speech to thesummit and was heavily criticised by the Conservatives for
failing to dealwith Mr Mugabe`s attack.

Mr Trimble said today while
financial aid had a role to play in curing theproblems encountered by
developing nations, it was useless unless it waslinked to
democratisation.

The Stormont First Minister insisted sustainable
development was``essentially a political problem with a political
solution``.

``Democracies do not make expensive wars with each other.
They resolve theirdifferences through diplomacy.

``Likewise in
democracies, corrupt politicians who take bribes in return forlicences to
polluters can be thrown out.

``But where the rule of law does not run,
development is not possible.``

The UUP leader argued it was in the West`s
interests for democracy and therule of law to take hold in developing
countries - the Third World had thepotential to be the worst polluters
unless the current situation wasaddressed.

``The West, however, is
not providing the incentives for the developingworld, especially Africa, to
reform itself,`` he lamented.

``The international reaction to the
situation in Zimbabwe, as in Rwanda andZaire before this, essentially
consists of hand wringing.``

Zimbabwe's justice
minister acknowledged on Tuesday that the country'sruling elite was also
benefiting from seizures of land from white farmersintended mainly to help
landless black peasants.

Patrick Chinamasa said on a South African public
radio talkshow that thecontroversial land reforms benefited everyone, be
they senior members of theruling Zanu-PF party or supporters of the
opposition Movement for DemocraticChange.

"There are pieces of land
which are being subdivided and given to people whoapply. It does not matter
whether these are people in the leadership of theZanu-PF or not," he
said.

"We have bankers who have benefited, lecturers from universities
havebenefited, we've got even opposition members who have benefited from
theland programme. As long as they are black they are entitled to benefit,"
hesaid.

President Robert Mugabe says the reforms are designed to
reverse a coloniallegacy that left 70 percent of the best land in the hands
of a tiny whiteminority at independence in 1980.

The Unites States
recently cited the distribution of seized commercial farmsto Mugabe's
friends and allies, including his wife, Grace, as a reason tooppose the
programme.

The seizures, backed by an order to 2 900 of the 4 500 white
farmers to stopfarming by August 8, have been cited as a factor in the
country'sdrought-fuelled food crisis, which affects about six million of its
13million people.

Chinamasa contested this, saying those white
farmers who grew maize ratherthan cash crops like tobacco and cotton used it
to feed their livestockrather than hungry black Zimbabweans.

"The
shortage which the region is experiencing has not been caused by theland
programme, but by what we all know, the drought which is afflicting thewhole
region," he said.

Chinamasa's comments came a day after Mugabe launched a
scathing attackagainst British Prime Minister Tony Blair at the Johannesburg
Earth Summit.

"Blair, keep your England and let me keep my Zimbabwe," he
said in anaddress to more than 100 heads of government.

"If you think that in South Africa you will be freed from what is
happeningin Zimbabwe and you don't anticipate those changes, I feel sorry
for youbecause as things are South African blacks are in a worse situation
thanZimbabweans."

The land crisis in Zimbabwe, which started in 2000
when black militantsinvaded white farmland, has fuelled volatility of the
South African randcurrency.

But South African President Thabo Mbeki,
though criticised for doing toolittle to rein Mugabe in, has said repeatedly
that his government will neverallow land seizures.

South Africa is
running parallel land reform programmes to return land takenfrom blacks
under apartheid and redistribute some land held by whites at theend of white
rule in 1994.

JOHANNESBURG, 3
September (IRIN) - Ground down by the daily struggle to find enough food for
their families, rural Zimbabweans have reached the limit of their coping skills,
deepening their vulnerability to the current humanitarian crisis, aid workers
told IRIN on Tuesday.

"Many people have already exhausted their coping
mechanisms. If food aid is not delivered in sufficient quantities, the
possibility of them falling into starvation is very real," Chris McIvor of Save
the Children Fund (SCF) warned.

SCF vulnerability and nutrition
assessments in the drought-prone northern Zambezi valley have indicated that
levels of malnutrition are "relatively benign". But, McIvor noted, once people
have sold all their assets, "the collapse can be very fast".

Christian
Aid reaches 120,000 school children with a meal-a-day in four provinces. It also
runs a therapeutic feeding scheme for children under five in Manicaland.
According to Christian Aid programme officer, Ed Watkiss, "the children's
weights are plateauing. You won't see kwashiorkor ... but basically they are not
getting enough food".

"People in the rural areas say they are hungry
and have no more mealie [maize] meal. When you look into their storage bins
there is nothing, there are also longer queues at the GMB [Grain Marketing Board
- the state run distribution outlets] depots. The need is big and is getting
bigger," Watkiss said.

A UN crop assessment earlier this year said maize
output had fallen by 67 percent compared with 2001. Drought, which wiped out
crops in most parts of the country, and the government's land-reform programme,
both affected production. As a result, six million Zimbabweans will need 705,000
mt of food aid until the next harvest in March/April 2003.

As the
crisis persists, families have been forced to slash household budgets. This has
typically involved cutting back on healthcare, pulling children out of school,
and turning to "bush foods" rather than expensive and scarce commercial items.
At the same time, livestock are being sold at progressively lower prices, due in
part to a glut caused by the auction of cattle owned by commercial farmers who
have been forced off the land, Watkiss said.

Some households in border
districts have been able to illegally sell their livestock for better prices in
Botswana, South Africa and Mozambique. But most rural families have faced a
general impoverishment. That has been reinforced by black market prices for food
running at between two and three times the official rate, and casual labour
opportunities disappearing with the departing commercial farmers.

The
deeper the decline, the harder it will be for communities to rebound next year.
"There is no money to purchase seeds, even if the rains come. [SCF] will have to
distribute seeds," McIvor said.

Even the rains could be in doubt if a
potential El Nino, a weather pattern causing climatic disruptions, develops as
feared. "The big worry is that an El Nino could be building and lead to another
unreliable rainy season. If that happens, next year will be a nightmare. In the
past a proportion of Zimbabwe's agriculture was under irrigation by the
commercial farmers. Next year it will be all rain fed," Watkiss said.

JOHANNESBURG, 3
September (IRIN) - Human rights bodies have condemned the alleged "silencing of
dissent" and "disregard for the rule of law" in Zimbabwe.

Amnesty
International said the Zimbabwean authorities were "intensifying harassment of
human rights organisations, the independent media and the judiciary", ahead of
local council elections later this month.

"On 29 August, Dr Frances
Lovemore, medical director of Amani Trust, a leading human rights NGO in
Zimbabwe, was arrested in Harare. Dr Lovemore [was] charged with 'publishing or
communicating false statements prejudicial to the state'. The charge apparently
stems from recent press reports which referred to Amani Trust's work with
victims of torture and politically motivated rape in Zimbabwe," the rights group
said.

Lovemore was quoted in the British Daily Telegraph on 25 August as
saying that "Mugabe's men use rape as revenge".

She was later released,
and the charges against her were dropped due to insufficient evidence. However,
Amnesty International noted in a statement released on Monday that her arrest
was an attempt to intimidate her.

"The international community should
take every step to support the work of Zimbabwean human rights NGOs which place
themselves at risk in documenting cases of human rights violations and in
treating victims," the lobby group said.

Amnesty International also
pointed to the bombing on 29 August of the Harare office of Voice of the People
(VOP), one of Zimbabwe's two independent broadcasting
organisations.

While nobody was injured in the blast, the damage to the
building was extensive. No responsibility has been claimed for the attack.

"The government has also stepped up its harassment of the judiciary, as
witnessed by several recent attacks on magistrates," the rights group
said.

In August two magistrates were assaulted by self-styled war
veterans, apparently because of judgments they had made in politically charged
trials. One of them was dragged out of his courtroom and beaten while another
was stabbed at a petrol station.

"The recent arrest of Dr Lovemore, the
bombing of the office of the VOP, and the assaults on magistrates is evidence of
a clampdown on critics of the government as the September elections draw
nearer," Amnesty International said.

"The attacks on the magistrates
reflect on-going attempts on the part of government authorities and state
sponsored 'militia' to undermine the judicial system and prevent court officials
from executing their duties impartially and professionally," the organisation
added.

The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights (UNHCHR) Special
Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Dato' Param Cumaraswamy,
has also expressed outrage at the attacks.

"The provision of adequate
protection to judges and lawyers when their safety is threatened is a basic
prerequisite for safeguarding the rule of law," Cumaraswamy said in a statement.
"This is simply fundamental, in order to guarantee the right to a fair trial by
an independent and impartial tribunal and the protection of human rights."

"Unfortunately, this represents another example of the government of
Zimbabwe's continuing disregard for the independence of the judiciary and
contempt for the rule of law. The assault on the magistrate within the four
walls of his court house can only be viewed as a blatant attack on the rule of
law," he added.

The Special Rapporteur called on the government to
publicly condemn acts of violence against the judiciary, to reassert its
commitment to the independence of the judiciary, and to prosecute all those
responsible for the attacks. He also implored the international community "to
redouble its efforts to ensure that the rule of law is respected in
Zimbabwe".